Non-profit research company OpenAI has been teaching a group of neural networks how to play Dota 2 in the hopes they’ll be able to compete against a team of pros at The International esports tournament this August.
As reported by Variety, the networks — dubbed the ‘OpenAI Five’ — have already defeated some amateur human teams under restricted conditions, which saw the removal of certain heroes, warding, Roshan, invisibility, and summons.
Now, with The International mere weeks away, OpenAI wants to test the resilience of its AI combatants by pitting them against another batch of human players on July 28.
This time though, the matches will be broadcast on Twitch, giving those interested in our artificially intelligent counterparts a chance to see them take on an few lucky meatbags live on the internet.
The bots have apparently been playing 180 years worth of matches against themselves each and every day to learn the game, through they’ve yet to master certain techniques such as ‘last-hittng’ — a tactic used by players to grind gold during a match.
Will those kinks have been ironed out by the time game day rolls around? You can find out by tuning into the OpenAI Twitch channel on July 28.